Company says its fifth-generation ripening room cooler marks a breakthrough in design, giving fruit ripeners a smarter system to maintain and control
Dutch ripening specialist Interko has launched its fifth-generation twin horizontal cooler (VTH) for its Ultimo rooms with enhanced servicing, functionality, and control.
Engineered from the ground up around Interko’s recently introduced digital data network, the redesigned air cooler took two years to develop in collaboration with a national university.
The modular design maintains precise constant temperatures and uniform airflow within a ripening room for even ripening of bananas, avocados, and mangoes, and is easier to clean, maintain, and replace parts.
Functionality has also improved thanks to new cooling energy sensors and insulated drip trays. Crucially, the cooler is fully integrated with Interko’s new digital data network, making it compatible with the company’s exclusive RipePilot automated ripening system, which lays the foundation for even greater digital control of the fruit ripening process.
Airflow and energy efficiency marks another improvement after further development of Interko’s Reverso reversible fan technology, as well as an enhanced ceiling design, and dual durable steel M-rails to replace historical side curtains.
Designed to work with Ultimo ripening rooms of either single-tier, two-tier, or three-tier format, Interko said the VTH is already in demand. The company is in the process of installing the new cooler for a major international fruit company in Ireland.
Chris Maat, managing director and partner at Interko, commented: “From an engineering perspective, we’ve never been more proud of our new product development. The VTH cooler took two years to develop and is the collaborative result of many fresh ideas and new improvements. It’s a real evolution in design”.
Interko has drawn on its 35 years of cooling and ripening knowledge and experience to completely redesign the fifth generation of its twin horizontal air cooler. The first model was developed by the founder of the company during the early 1990s.
“A great deal of thought has gone into the design process to make our VTH air cooler simpler and better for fruit ripeners,” Maat said. “It’s easier and faster to clean, maintain, and service thanks to more standardised and fewer different components. This is key for sourcing and replacing spare parts via an increasingly challenging global supply chain.
“The modular heater element is now easily changeable, just like the fans. The drip trays for condensation can be pulled out, opened, and cleaned easily, unlike the previous generation. Plus the drip trays come insulated as standard to enable a broader temperature range in the room. This gives users the versatility of ripening more tropical and exotic fruits than bananas, which is a growing trend for our popular Ultimo rooms.
“VTH is also packed with data improvements to give operators greater insight into the ripening process for even more control and better decision making. By introducing cooling energy sensors for intake and discharge, users can calculate the current stage of ripening to actively manage the process and achieve better fruit quality. Plus VTH has been designed to communicate digitally with RipePilot via our digital data network, which creates an ideal platform for further innovation.”
